In Malaya and India, the British devised a system of indirect rule whereby they relied on local norms, social organizations, and indigenous institutions of authority such as landlords and sultans who ...
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In Malaya and India, the British devised a system of indirect rule whereby they relied on local norms, social organizations, and indigenous institutions of authority such as landlords and sultans who managed the daily lives of their subjects but were controlled by the British through treaties. Both the colonial states used patronage to rule, creating dependencies between local authorities and the colonial state, and also creating economic, legal, and social structures that, along with the patronage, divided the society vertically.Less

The Colonial Legacy

Seyyed Vali Reza Nasr

Published in print: 2001-09-27

In Malaya and India, the British devised a system of indirect rule whereby they relied on local norms, social organizations, and indigenous institutions of authority such as landlords and sultans who managed the daily lives of their subjects but were controlled by the British through treaties. Both the colonial states used patronage to rule, creating dependencies between local authorities and the colonial state, and also creating economic, legal, and social structures that, along with the patronage, divided the society vertically.

Events had moved swiftly after the attack on Pearl Harbor of December 8, 1941. Within hours, the Japanese troops invaded Malaya and Thailand and launched a probing attack on Hong Kong. The first ...
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Events had moved swiftly after the attack on Pearl Harbor of December 8, 1941. Within hours, the Japanese troops invaded Malaya and Thailand and launched a probing attack on Hong Kong. The first section of this chapter describes the quick Japanese invasion, the strategic significance of the Malay Barrier, the condition of Allied naval forces, the lack of strategic direction, and the American mission of defending the Philippines. Much of the burden on the Royal Navy side fell on Sir George Layton, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Fleet. The second section describes his ruthless but effective withdrawal of the US Asiatic Fleet, and the pre-war undertakings that were thrown over. Layton's major effort went into the attempt to keep trade and convoys moving. The last section describes the protection of shipping for Singapore, the success of Japanese aircraft, and the Navy's failure to halt the Japanese.Less

The Grim Allied Outlook

Arthur J. Marder

Published in print: 1990-08-02

Events had moved swiftly after the attack on Pearl Harbor of December 8, 1941. Within hours, the Japanese troops invaded Malaya and Thailand and launched a probing attack on Hong Kong. The first section of this chapter describes the quick Japanese invasion, the strategic significance of the Malay Barrier, the condition of Allied naval forces, the lack of strategic direction, and the American mission of defending the Philippines. Much of the burden on the Royal Navy side fell on Sir George Layton, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Fleet. The second section describes his ruthless but effective withdrawal of the US Asiatic Fleet, and the pre-war undertakings that were thrown over. Layton's major effort went into the attempt to keep trade and convoys moving. The last section describes the protection of shipping for Singapore, the success of Japanese aircraft, and the Navy's failure to halt the Japanese.

Much of the functioning of the imperial economy depended on the movement of ‘non‐white’ migrants, especially indentured labourers. Some were recruited in the Pacific islands for work in Queensland, ...
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Much of the functioning of the imperial economy depended on the movement of ‘non‐white’ migrants, especially indentured labourers. Some were recruited in the Pacific islands for work in Queensland, until Australian legislation obliged almost all to leave. Most were from India, and worked especially on plantations in the Caribbean, Fiji, Natal, Malaya, Mauritius, and Ceylon. Many others, also especially from India, were free migrants, responding to domestic pressures and taking up perceived labour and entrepreneurial opportunities as in East and southern Africa. Similarly motivated were Chinese immigrants. Most such people fitted into the dual labour market model, working under white supervision, often temporarily overseas. Large numbers, often maintaining their cultural identities, also settled abroad, though entry and settlement were made difficult until recently by immigration controls erected around white settler societies.Less

Exile into Bondage? Non‐White Migrants and Settlers

Marjory HarperStephen Constantine

Published in print: 2010-09-01

Much of the functioning of the imperial economy depended on the movement of ‘non‐white’ migrants, especially indentured labourers. Some were recruited in the Pacific islands for work in Queensland, until Australian legislation obliged almost all to leave. Most were from India, and worked especially on plantations in the Caribbean, Fiji, Natal, Malaya, Mauritius, and Ceylon. Many others, also especially from India, were free migrants, responding to domestic pressures and taking up perceived labour and entrepreneurial opportunities as in East and southern Africa. Similarly motivated were Chinese immigrants. Most such people fitted into the dual labour market model, working under white supervision, often temporarily overseas. Large numbers, often maintaining their cultural identities, also settled abroad, though entry and settlement were made difficult until recently by immigration controls erected around white settler societies.

This chapter focuses on ‘British Malaya’ as Sir Frank Swettenham defined it by the end of the 19th century: the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, and the Malay States of the ...
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This chapter focuses on ‘British Malaya’ as Sir Frank Swettenham defined it by the end of the 19th century: the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, and the Malay States of the peninsula, where by the 1900s there were families who had seen three or four generations of service. They tended to stand apart from more recent arrivals, and on such distinctions the public debates of the community increasingly centred. But throughout the colonial period, careers continued to be made on a much wider canvas and some of the most important contributions to the making of the community came from those whose sojourns in the region were relatively brief. Malaya was at once one of the most plural, yet one of the most insidiously hierarchical of British colonial societies. For all its vivid life, ‘British Malaya’ was a strangely elusive and ephemeral affair, and now few traces of the imperial community remain.Less

The British ‘Malayans’

Tim Harper

Published in print: 2010-09-16

This chapter focuses on ‘British Malaya’ as Sir Frank Swettenham defined it by the end of the 19th century: the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, and the Malay States of the peninsula, where by the 1900s there were families who had seen three or four generations of service. They tended to stand apart from more recent arrivals, and on such distinctions the public debates of the community increasingly centred. But throughout the colonial period, careers continued to be made on a much wider canvas and some of the most important contributions to the making of the community came from those whose sojourns in the region were relatively brief. Malaya was at once one of the most plural, yet one of the most insidiously hierarchical of British colonial societies. For all its vivid life, ‘British Malaya’ was a strangely elusive and ephemeral affair, and now few traces of the imperial community remain.

British expansion in South-East Asia was shaped by the well-being of India, opportunities in China, and international, particularly Anglo-French, rivalry. From the late eighteenth century, British ...
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British expansion in South-East Asia was shaped by the well-being of India, opportunities in China, and international, particularly Anglo-French, rivalry. From the late eighteenth century, British commerce in South-East Asia became enmeshed with British commerce in India; from the late nineteenth century, the development of agriculture and mining tied South-East Asian economies more closely to industrial and finance capitalism in Britain. The advances into ‘Further India’ during 1786–c.1830 are shown. It specifically addresses maritime South-East Asia and Britain in mainland South-East Asia. In addition, the free trade imperialism and turbulent frontiers in Malaya and Borneo, Burma, and Siam during c.1830–c.1870 are reported. It then considers imperialism and colonialism during c.1870–1914. As the British pursued their interests and extended their power in South-East Asia, the demarcation between those areas falling within Britain's formal Empire and those remaining outside it became indistinct.Less

British Expansion and Rule in South-East Asia

A. J. Stockwell

Published in print: 1999-10-21

British expansion in South-East Asia was shaped by the well-being of India, opportunities in China, and international, particularly Anglo-French, rivalry. From the late eighteenth century, British commerce in South-East Asia became enmeshed with British commerce in India; from the late nineteenth century, the development of agriculture and mining tied South-East Asian economies more closely to industrial and finance capitalism in Britain. The advances into ‘Further India’ during 1786–c.1830 are shown. It specifically addresses maritime South-East Asia and Britain in mainland South-East Asia. In addition, the free trade imperialism and turbulent frontiers in Malaya and Borneo, Burma, and Siam during c.1830–c.1870 are reported. It then considers imperialism and colonialism during c.1870–1914. As the British pursued their interests and extended their power in South-East Asia, the demarcation between those areas falling within Britain's formal Empire and those remaining outside it became indistinct.

This chapter presents a discussion on the dissolution of the British Empire. In particular, it deals with the critical cases of India, Palestine, Burma, Ceylon, Egypt, the Sudan, Malaya, the West ...
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This chapter presents a discussion on the dissolution of the British Empire. In particular, it deals with the critical cases of India, Palestine, Burma, Ceylon, Egypt, the Sudan, Malaya, the West Indies, and tropical Africa. Above all, it explains how the initial phase of disengagement, presided over by Clement Attlee, eventually found its culmination in the era of liquidation dominated by Harold Macmillan. There were three main periods. The first was that of the Labour government, 1945–51; the second that of the Tory governments of Sir Winston Churchill and Sir Anthony Eden, 1951–7; and the third that of Macmillan from 1957. The immediate causes of the end of the British Empire are to be found not only in the nationalist movements in Empire itself but also in the lessons learned from the Algerian revolution and in the danger of Soviet intervention in the Congo. It is shown that the international climate expedited the advance to independence, but the circumstances varied from region to region, from colony to colony.Less

The Dissolution of the British Empire

WM. ROGER LOUIS

Published in print: 1999-10-21

This chapter presents a discussion on the dissolution of the British Empire. In particular, it deals with the critical cases of India, Palestine, Burma, Ceylon, Egypt, the Sudan, Malaya, the West Indies, and tropical Africa. Above all, it explains how the initial phase of disengagement, presided over by Clement Attlee, eventually found its culmination in the era of liquidation dominated by Harold Macmillan. There were three main periods. The first was that of the Labour government, 1945–51; the second that of the Tory governments of Sir Winston Churchill and Sir Anthony Eden, 1951–7; and the third that of Macmillan from 1957. The immediate causes of the end of the British Empire are to be found not only in the nationalist movements in Empire itself but also in the lessons learned from the Algerian revolution and in the danger of Soviet intervention in the Congo. It is shown that the international climate expedited the advance to independence, but the circumstances varied from region to region, from colony to colony.

This lecture discusses the remarkable recovery of British India and the Indian army that made the reconquest of Burma and Malaya possible. The Indian army is shown to have displayed a number of ...
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This lecture discusses the remarkable recovery of British India and the Indian army that made the reconquest of Burma and Malaya possible. The Indian army is shown to have displayed a number of strengths during its final years, such as its reorganisation and provision with new equipment. It was also given a higher political profile, and Indian soldiers were given new initiatives by their commanders. The lecture determines that the final campaign of the Indian army helped create the social order of the new nations of the Subcontinent.Less

‘The Nation Within’: British India at War 1939–1947 : Raleigh Lecture on History

C. A. Bayly

Published in print: 2005-01-20

This lecture discusses the remarkable recovery of British India and the Indian army that made the reconquest of Burma and Malaya possible. The Indian army is shown to have displayed a number of strengths during its final years, such as its reorganisation and provision with new equipment. It was also given a higher political profile, and Indian soldiers were given new initiatives by their commanders. The lecture determines that the final campaign of the Indian army helped create the social order of the new nations of the Subcontinent.

This chapter describes the Chinese woman's vegetarian house as it is in Singapore at the present time, and attempts to analyse the reasons for its existence. These organizations of vegetarians are ...
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This chapter describes the Chinese woman's vegetarian house as it is in Singapore at the present time, and attempts to analyse the reasons for its existence. These organizations of vegetarians are formed with the object of providing board and lodging for unattached women who worship Buddha. Many of these women are without immediate family connections in Malaya, are unmarried and have nobody to care for them and nowhere else to go in their old age. The majority of these houses are formed to meet the needs of Chinese immigrant women workers. In addition, there are those which have grown up to cater for the needs of local born women; those who have no wish to marry, or who are lonely widows with nobody to support them, or, for various reasons, prefer not to inflict themselves on their relatives and friends.Less

Chinese Women’s Vegetarian Houses in Singapore : (1954)*

Marjorie Topley

Published in print: 2011-01-01

This chapter describes the Chinese woman's vegetarian house as it is in Singapore at the present time, and attempts to analyse the reasons for its existence. These organizations of vegetarians are formed with the object of providing board and lodging for unattached women who worship Buddha. Many of these women are without immediate family connections in Malaya, are unmarried and have nobody to care for them and nowhere else to go in their old age. The majority of these houses are formed to meet the needs of Chinese immigrant women workers. In addition, there are those which have grown up to cater for the needs of local born women; those who have no wish to marry, or who are lonely widows with nobody to support them, or, for various reasons, prefer not to inflict themselves on their relatives and friends.

In the decades between the 1870s and the 1920s, groups of Malay Muslims circulated symbols of the Ottoman Caliphate in gestures of defiance against British colonial intervention on the Malay ...
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In the decades between the 1870s and the 1920s, groups of Malay Muslims circulated symbols of the Ottoman Caliphate in gestures of defiance against British colonial intervention on the Malay peninsula. This was the period of ‘forward movement’, in which Britain progressively colonised successive Malay States, and it roughly coincided with the European confrontations which produced the First World War, Ottoman collapse, and the abolition of the Caliphate. At peninsular and global scales, these developments advanced the geo-body as the only legitimate means by which to organise territory. As a result, the Muslim world located around the Indian Ocean was decisively divided into a series of discrete, contiguous states, fragmenting the ummah, its latent political community. Malayan invocations of the Caliphate were local responses to this global reorganisation, of which peninsular colonisation formed an important and disruptive part.Less

‘We Hope to Raise the Bendera Stambul’ : British Forward Movement and the Caliphate on the Malay Peninsula

Amrita Malhi

Published in print: 2015-02-05

In the decades between the 1870s and the 1920s, groups of Malay Muslims circulated symbols of the Ottoman Caliphate in gestures of defiance against British colonial intervention on the Malay peninsula. This was the period of ‘forward movement’, in which Britain progressively colonised successive Malay States, and it roughly coincided with the European confrontations which produced the First World War, Ottoman collapse, and the abolition of the Caliphate. At peninsular and global scales, these developments advanced the geo-body as the only legitimate means by which to organise territory. As a result, the Muslim world located around the Indian Ocean was decisively divided into a series of discrete, contiguous states, fragmenting the ummah, its latent political community. Malayan invocations of the Caliphate were local responses to this global reorganisation, of which peninsular colonisation formed an important and disruptive part.

This chapter describes the rejection of the proposal by Gladwyn Jebb that the UK should now take no further part in the United Nations negotiations, and describes the US change of policy, provoked by ...
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This chapter describes the rejection of the proposal by Gladwyn Jebb that the UK should now take no further part in the United Nations negotiations, and describes the US change of policy, provoked by the proposed Bricker amendment to the US constitution, which led the US to give up its leading role in human rights protection. It described the decision to extend the European Convention, but not its First Protocol, to the colonial empire, at a time when there had arisen a number of colonial insurrections, most notably in Malaya, Cyprus, and Kenya, where its provisions could not be fully implemented. It gives an account of the processes whereby, as colonies became independent, bills of rights came to be incorporated in some of their constitutions, dealing in particular with the Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria and Malaya, and with the Radcliffe proposals for Cyprus.Less

Ratification and its Consequences

A. W. BRIAN SIMPSON

Published in print: 2004-01-29

This chapter describes the rejection of the proposal by Gladwyn Jebb that the UK should now take no further part in the United Nations negotiations, and describes the US change of policy, provoked by the proposed Bricker amendment to the US constitution, which led the US to give up its leading role in human rights protection. It described the decision to extend the European Convention, but not its First Protocol, to the colonial empire, at a time when there had arisen a number of colonial insurrections, most notably in Malaya, Cyprus, and Kenya, where its provisions could not be fully implemented. It gives an account of the processes whereby, as colonies became independent, bills of rights came to be incorporated in some of their constitutions, dealing in particular with the Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria and Malaya, and with the Radcliffe proposals for Cyprus.

The British threw a veneer of legality over their operations by avoiding imposing martial law and instead employing emergency powers regulations to create a legal framework within which their ...
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The British threw a veneer of legality over their operations by avoiding imposing martial law and instead employing emergency powers regulations to create a legal framework within which their security forces operated. The meaning of the concept of ‘minimum necessary force’ precluded the British from employing genocidal methods against their opponents, but did permit them to employ a very high degree of often lethal force. In the absence of martial law, the civil administration and police were not subordinated to the army, and so the British they had to develop a form of machinery to enable them to coordinate the activities of the different branches of government. The result was counter-insurgency by committee.Less

The Legal Context and Counter-insurgency by Committee

David French

Published in print: 2011-09-29

The British threw a veneer of legality over their operations by avoiding imposing martial law and instead employing emergency powers regulations to create a legal framework within which their security forces operated. The meaning of the concept of ‘minimum necessary force’ precluded the British from employing genocidal methods against their opponents, but did permit them to employ a very high degree of often lethal force. In the absence of martial law, the civil administration and police were not subordinated to the army, and so the British they had to develop a form of machinery to enable them to coordinate the activities of the different branches of government. The result was counter-insurgency by committee.

This essay argues that an examination of the cultural effects of decolonisation can yield a clearer appreciation of the combined role of both coloniser and colonised in the making of the postcolonial ...
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This essay argues that an examination of the cultural effects of decolonisation can yield a clearer appreciation of the combined role of both coloniser and colonised in the making of the postcolonial order. Taking an approach informed by Michel Foucault, Jean-François Bayart and Romain Bertrand, it shows that the ethnic tensions which erupted over questions of national language planning, multilingualism, and culture in postcolonial Malaya, and persist through to the present, cannot be explained away as a simple “colonial legacy” inflicted by British divide-and-rule policies. They must also be recognised as the result of a particular hegemonic configuration, produced and maintained through the agency of postcolonial subjects themselves.Less

Rachel Leow

Published in print: 2016-02-01

This essay argues that an examination of the cultural effects of decolonisation can yield a clearer appreciation of the combined role of both coloniser and colonised in the making of the postcolonial order. Taking an approach informed by Michel Foucault, Jean-François Bayart and Romain Bertrand, it shows that the ethnic tensions which erupted over questions of national language planning, multilingualism, and culture in postcolonial Malaya, and persist through to the present, cannot be explained away as a simple “colonial legacy” inflicted by British divide-and-rule policies. They must also be recognised as the result of a particular hegemonic configuration, produced and maintained through the agency of postcolonial subjects themselves.

This chapter examines representations of Malaya in the writings of Isabella Bird, Emily Innes, and Florence Caddy, British writers who were in Malaya for different periods of time between 1879 and ...
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This chapter examines representations of Malaya in the writings of Isabella Bird, Emily Innes, and Florence Caddy, British writers who were in Malaya for different periods of time between 1879 and 1888. It provides a reading of their works as discourses of differences that reinforce colonialist attitudes about Malaya and its people. It suggests that the works of these women are a response to the condition of being not-at-home in that there is an attempt to create through their writings an environment that is hospitable to the colonial enterprise, even if the voices are different.Less

Eddie Tay

Published in print: 2010-12-01

This chapter examines representations of Malaya in the writings of Isabella Bird, Emily Innes, and Florence Caddy, British writers who were in Malaya for different periods of time between 1879 and 1888. It provides a reading of their works as discourses of differences that reinforce colonialist attitudes about Malaya and its people. It suggests that the works of these women are a response to the condition of being not-at-home in that there is an attempt to create through their writings an environment that is hospitable to the colonial enterprise, even if the voices are different.

This chapter examines representations of Englishness and the British Empire in the writings of W. Somerset Maugham and Anthony Burgess. It suggests that Maugham's representation of Europeans in ...
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This chapter examines representations of Englishness and the British Empire in the writings of W. Somerset Maugham and Anthony Burgess. It suggests that Maugham's representation of Europeans in Malaya is troubled by a reservation expressed in the work as to the authority of Englishness. Burgess, on the other hand, harbours an anxiety as to the role of the Englishman in the tropics. Taken together, the works of these two authors depict a Malaya that is gradually becoming socially and politically uninhabitable to its colonial occupants.Less

Eddie Tay

Published in print: 2010-12-01

This chapter examines representations of Englishness and the British Empire in the writings of W. Somerset Maugham and Anthony Burgess. It suggests that Maugham's representation of Europeans in Malaya is troubled by a reservation expressed in the work as to the authority of Englishness. Burgess, on the other hand, harbours an anxiety as to the role of the Englishman in the tropics. Taken together, the works of these two authors depict a Malaya that is gradually becoming socially and politically uninhabitable to its colonial occupants.

This chapter examines the postcolonial project of “writing back” against metropolitan representations of Malaya as evidenced in the works of Lee Kok Kiang. It discusses Lee's disenchantment with ...
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This chapter examines the postcolonial project of “writing back” against metropolitan representations of Malaya as evidenced in the works of Lee Kok Kiang. It discusses Lee's disenchantment with London and his reclamation of Malaya as his home. It suggests that though Lee was able to return to a vision of Malaya as home and nation, subsequent political events which led to the emergence of Malaysia's ethnic nationalism have come to problematize this vision.Less

‘There is no way out but through’: : Lee Kok Liang and the Malayan Nation

Eddie Tay

Published in print: 2010-12-01

This chapter examines the postcolonial project of “writing back” against metropolitan representations of Malaya as evidenced in the works of Lee Kok Kiang. It discusses Lee's disenchantment with London and his reclamation of Malaya as his home. It suggests that though Lee was able to return to a vision of Malaya as home and nation, subsequent political events which led to the emergence of Malaysia's ethnic nationalism have come to problematize this vision.

This chapter examines the concept of post-diasporic experience in the works of K. S. Maniam, a Malaysian novelist and a third-generation descendent of South Asian migrants who worked as indentured ...
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This chapter examines the concept of post-diasporic experience in the works of K. S. Maniam, a Malaysian novelist and a third-generation descendent of South Asian migrants who worked as indentured labourers in the plantation estates of British Malaya. It describes Maniam's articulation of a post-diasporic consciousness against the ethnic nationalism expressed in the New Economic Policy. It suggests that his writings do not foreground a diasporic condition per se but rather a struggle to recover the diasporic condition so as to interrogate the socio-political space of the nation.Less

The Post-Diasporic Imagination: The Novels of K. S. Maniam

Eddie Tay

Published in print: 2010-12-01

This chapter examines the concept of post-diasporic experience in the works of K. S. Maniam, a Malaysian novelist and a third-generation descendent of South Asian migrants who worked as indentured labourers in the plantation estates of British Malaya. It describes Maniam's articulation of a post-diasporic consciousness against the ethnic nationalism expressed in the New Economic Policy. It suggests that his writings do not foreground a diasporic condition per se but rather a struggle to recover the diasporic condition so as to interrogate the socio-political space of the nation.

This chapter explores both resemblances and divergences within Isabella Bird's The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither (1883), Emily Innes' The Chersonese with the Gilding Off (1885), and Florence ...
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This chapter explores both resemblances and divergences within Isabella Bird's The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither (1883), Emily Innes' The Chersonese with the Gilding Off (1885), and Florence Caddy's To Siam and Malaya in the Duke of Sutherland's Yacht “Sans Peur” (1889). These are narratives written by three very different women who were in Malaya under varied circumstances. It specifically analyzes the extent to which their works conform to the idea that women's travel writings might be considered as constituting “discourses of difference”. It also makes the point that, apart from gender, there are other internal distinctions to be made within the “discourses of difference”. These include differences in terms of class, marital status and the particular circumstances that brought these women to Malaya. In general, the three accounts of British presence in Malaya reveal the variety of ways in which colonialism is articulated by women writers who were in Malaya between 1879 and 1888.Less

Discourses of Difference: The Malaya of Isabella Bird, Emily Innes and Florence Caddy

Tay Eddie

Published in print: 2008-07-01

This chapter explores both resemblances and divergences within Isabella Bird's The Golden Chersonese and the Way Thither (1883), Emily Innes' The Chersonese with the Gilding Off (1885), and Florence Caddy's To Siam and Malaya in the Duke of Sutherland's Yacht “Sans Peur” (1889). These are narratives written by three very different women who were in Malaya under varied circumstances. It specifically analyzes the extent to which their works conform to the idea that women's travel writings might be considered as constituting “discourses of difference”. It also makes the point that, apart from gender, there are other internal distinctions to be made within the “discourses of difference”. These include differences in terms of class, marital status and the particular circumstances that brought these women to Malaya. In general, the three accounts of British presence in Malaya reveal the variety of ways in which colonialism is articulated by women writers who were in Malaya between 1879 and 1888.

This chapter explores Islamic humoralism on the Malay Peninsula. Although Islam was successfully implanted in Malaya, and Islamic concepts are used by Malays to interpret and reinterpret empirical ...
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This chapter explores Islamic humoralism on the Malay Peninsula. Although Islam was successfully implanted in Malaya, and Islamic concepts are used by Malays to interpret and reinterpret empirical realities, the pre-Islamic aboriginal view of the workings of the cosmos, and the positive valence of coolness in the universe and its human microcosm, still fundamental to Malay thought, have radically altered the received theories of Islamic humoralism. Malaya proved a remarkably receptive soil for Islamic religion and medical theories. Their humoral theory provided Islamicized Malays with a new grammar with which to organize ideas about humanity and the universe. Medieval Greek-Arabic humoral theories concerning foods, medicines, and diseases whose etiology stems from the natural world appear in simplified but otherwise virtually unchanged form in contemporary rural Malaysia.Less

A Welcoming Soil: Isamic Humoralism on the Malay Peninsula

Charles LeslieAllan Young

Published in print: 1992-06-05

This chapter explores Islamic humoralism on the Malay Peninsula. Although Islam was successfully implanted in Malaya, and Islamic concepts are used by Malays to interpret and reinterpret empirical realities, the pre-Islamic aboriginal view of the workings of the cosmos, and the positive valence of coolness in the universe and its human microcosm, still fundamental to Malay thought, have radically altered the received theories of Islamic humoralism. Malaya proved a remarkably receptive soil for Islamic religion and medical theories. Their humoral theory provided Islamicized Malays with a new grammar with which to organize ideas about humanity and the universe. Medieval Greek-Arabic humoral theories concerning foods, medicines, and diseases whose etiology stems from the natural world appear in simplified but otherwise virtually unchanged form in contemporary rural Malaysia.

Schooling Diaspora relates the previously untold story of female education and the overseas Chinese in British Malaya and Singapore, traversing more than a century of British imperialism, Chinese ...
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Schooling Diaspora relates the previously untold story of female education and the overseas Chinese in British Malaya and Singapore, traversing more than a century of British imperialism, Chinese migration, and Southeast Asian nationalism. This book explores the pioneering English- and Chinese-language girls’ schools in which these women studied and worked, drawing from school records, missionary annals, colonial reports, periodicals, and oral interviews. The history of educated overseas Chinese girls and women reveals the surprising reach of transnational female affiliations and activities in an age and a community that most accounts have cast as male dominated. These women created and joined networks in schools, workplaces, associations, and politics. They influenced notions of labor and social relations in Asian and European societies. They were at the center of political debates over language and ethnicity and were vital actors in struggles over twentieth-century national belonging. Their education empowered them to defy certain sociocultural conventions in ways that school founders and political authorities did not anticipate. At the same time, they contended with an elite male discourse that perpetuated patriarchal views of gender, culture, and nation. Even as their schooling propelled them into a cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic public space, Chinese girls and women in diaspora often had to take sides as Malayan and Singaporean society became polarized—sometimes falsely—into mutually exclusive groups of British loyalists, pro-China nationalists, and Southeast Asian citizens. They negotiated these constraints to build unique identities, ultimately contributing to the development of a new figure: the educated transnational Chinese woman.Less

Schooling Diaspora : Women, Education, and the Overseas Chinese in British Malaya and Singapore, 1850s-1960s

Karen M. Teoh

Published in print: 2018-03-01

Schooling Diaspora relates the previously untold story of female education and the overseas Chinese in British Malaya and Singapore, traversing more than a century of British imperialism, Chinese migration, and Southeast Asian nationalism. This book explores the pioneering English- and Chinese-language girls’ schools in which these women studied and worked, drawing from school records, missionary annals, colonial reports, periodicals, and oral interviews. The history of educated overseas Chinese girls and women reveals the surprising reach of transnational female affiliations and activities in an age and a community that most accounts have cast as male dominated. These women created and joined networks in schools, workplaces, associations, and politics. They influenced notions of labor and social relations in Asian and European societies. They were at the center of political debates over language and ethnicity and were vital actors in struggles over twentieth-century national belonging. Their education empowered them to defy certain sociocultural conventions in ways that school founders and political authorities did not anticipate. At the same time, they contended with an elite male discourse that perpetuated patriarchal views of gender, culture, and nation. Even as their schooling propelled them into a cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic public space, Chinese girls and women in diaspora often had to take sides as Malayan and Singaporean society became polarized—sometimes falsely—into mutually exclusive groups of British loyalists, pro-China nationalists, and Southeast Asian citizens. They negotiated these constraints to build unique identities, ultimately contributing to the development of a new figure: the educated transnational Chinese woman.

This chapter examines Indian immigration, economic activities and settlement patterns in Singapore over the period from the transfer of the Straits Settlements from Indian rule in 1867 to the advent ...
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This chapter examines Indian immigration, economic activities and settlement patterns in Singapore over the period from the transfer of the Straits Settlements from Indian rule in 1867 to the advent of World War II. The chapter explains how the transfer of control, Singapore’s rapid economic development and the British advance in Malaya, affected erstwhile patterns of Indian immigration and the impact this had on the social, ethnic and religious makeup of the diaspora. It goes on to mark out the specific features of the socio-economic experience of these immigrants in the increasingly complex and multi-layered urban economy, and the factors that informed changes in their settlement patterns.Less

The Diaspora Reconstituted

Rajesh Rai

Published in print: 2014-07-01

This chapter examines Indian immigration, economic activities and settlement patterns in Singapore over the period from the transfer of the Straits Settlements from Indian rule in 1867 to the advent of World War II. The chapter explains how the transfer of control, Singapore’s rapid economic development and the British advance in Malaya, affected erstwhile patterns of Indian immigration and the impact this had on the social, ethnic and religious makeup of the diaspora. It goes on to mark out the specific features of the socio-economic experience of these immigrants in the increasingly complex and multi-layered urban economy, and the factors that informed changes in their settlement patterns.